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Singer-songwriter Kevin Grivois, a.k.a. Ké, is known for his powerful, thoughtful music and lyrics, which often reflect his cross-cultural background. Drawing on his distinct falsetto voice, Ké can sometimes leave an androgynous vocal impression. His anti-war anthem 'Strange World' made him cult icon in Europe. It was his debut single and topped radio charts in the UK, Italy and Germany as one of the most requested songs of 1996. Although his music was never released in the USA, a fatastic dance remix of the song, by Junior Vasquez, hit #1 on the US Billboard Dance chart.

Ké - Strange World (1996)

Ké - Strange World (Junior's Sound Factory Mix) (1996)

Lyrics:

Is this our last chance to say all we have to say
Hiding here inside ourselves we live our lives afraid
So close your eyes and just believe in everything you're told
Cause in this land of great confusion it's easy to give up control

Strange world people talk and tell only lies
Strange world people kill an eye for an eye
Strange world dream one-day we'll see the light
Strange world believe and everything will be alright

And this is the place where everything begins and ends again
No secrets left to find no seven deadly sins
This world that we have wasted has kept us very well
When science now is sacred who will save us from ourselves

Strange world people talk and tell only lies
Strange world people kill an eye for an eye
Strange world dream one-day we'll see the light
Strange world believe and everything will be alright

Strange world people talk sometimes I wonder why
Strange world people kill still no-one hears their cries
Strange world burn these thoughtless tears out of my eyes, eyes

Strange world people talk and tell only lies
Strange world people kill an eye for an eye
Strange world dream one-day we'll see the light, ahh, ahh

Strange world people kill and people hate and
People talk and people kill and still I wonder wonder why, why

Let's be honest, there was a sick streak inside all of us who loved them, wasn't there?

I saw married men, their eyes lighting up in delight just talk...errmmm...thinking about them - I saw married women, their eyes turning to jealous slits, hissing with gossip.
But you know, they were what they were... - so they were an absolutely atrocious live band, but as a recording quintett they did fairly well:
Cheryl Cole (née Tweedy), Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh were Girls Aloud.
Girls Aloud was formed on 30 November 2002, in front of millions of viewers on UK's ITV1 programme 'Popstars: The Rivals'. The concept of the programme, hosted by Big Brother presenter Davina McCall was to produce a boyband and a girlgroup who would be 'rivals' and compete for the 2002 Christmas number one single. The finalists were chosen by judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Geri Halliwell.
If anyone remembers, two of the five were actually stand-ins: Hazel Kaneswaren was found to be too old to participate (what the f**k?!), whilst Nicola Ward refused to sign the contract, claiming the pay the group would receive was too low, so Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts, who had made it into the final 15 but not the final 10, were chosen to join.
Several commercially successful years followed - and in 2009 the whole thing started to fall apart.

The second single from their third studio album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, '1979' was written by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. The track was just a couple of chord changes and a snippet of a melody without words. When the time came to choose the songs that were to appear on the album, their producer deemed it not good enough and wanted to drop it from the record. This inspired Billy to finish it in four hours and the next day they decided immediately to put it on, which Billy considering it the most personally important song. Ironially it is the highest charting single of the Smashing Pumpkins to date.
'1979' features a sample of Billy's voice repeated throughout. During recording, Corgan was singing 'ooh' as the melody line. The samples were electronically manipulated and looped against the drum beat.

Shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time
On a live wire right up off the street
You and I should meet
Junebug skipping like a stone
With the headlights pointed at the dawn
We were sure we'd never see an end to it all
And I don't even care to shake these zipper blues
And we don't know
Just where our bones will rest
To dust I guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
Double cross the vacant and the bored
They're not sure just what we have in store
Morphine city slipping dues down to see
That we don't even care as restless as we are
We feel the pull in the land of a thousand guilts
And poured cement, lamented and assured
To the lights and towns below
Faster than the speed of sound
Faster than we thought we'd go, beneath the sound of hope
Justine never knew the rules,
Hung down with the freaks and the ghouls
No apologies ever need be made, I know you better than you fake it
To see that we don't even care to shake these zipper blues
And we don't know just where our bones will rest
To dust I guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
The street heats the urgency of now
As you see there's no one around

Named after the famous London street of the same name, Gerald 'Gerry' Raffery wrote this track in 1977, while living with a friend in a little flat off Baker Street, chatting and playing the guitar for nights on end.
He wrote the song during a period when, in 1975, he was trying to extricate himself from legal contracts around his former band, the Stealers Wheel, regularly travelling between his family home in Paisley near Glasgow, where he was born in 1947, and London.
'Baker Street' was included on Gerry's second solo album, City to City, which was his first release after the resolution of the legal problems.
Gerry sadly died earlier this year, on 4th January 2011, from liver failure, linked to his alcohol addiction.

In addition to a guitar solo, played by Hugh Burns, the song features THE prominent eight-bar saxophone riff played as a break between verses by Raphael Ravenscroft. Raphael, fellow-Scot, was in the studio by coincidence, witnessing the recording activity and suggesting that the riff was played by saxophone, rather than the intended guitar, who was late arriving at the studio. He was grabbed the sax in the boot of his car and delivered a legendary result. Raphael was paid £27 for it - the cheque bounced unpaid.(he is credited with other performing credits includig work with ABBA, Kim Carnes, Marvin Gaye, Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Chris Rea, Robert Plant, Bonnie Tyler, Duffy and UB40).

'Baker Street' was remixed, covered and sampled numerous times. None of the versions really ever even came close to Gerry's original.

Windin' your way down on Baker Street
Light in your head and dead on your feet
Well another crazy day
You'll drink the night away
And forget about everything
This city desert makes you feel so cold.
It's got so many people but it's got no soul
And it's taking you so long
To find out you were wrong
When you thought it had everything

You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you're tryin'
You're tryin' now
Another year and then you'll be happy
Just one more year and then you'll be happy
But you're cryin'
You're cryin' now

Way down the street there's a lad in his place
He opens the door he's got that look on his face
And he asks you where you've been
You tell him who you've seen
And you talk about anything

He's got this dream about buyin' some land
He's gonna give up the booze and the one night stands
And then he'll settle down there's a quiet little town
And forget about everything

Toni Braxton was born 1967 in Severn, Maryland into a strict religious family with her dad being a Methodist clergyman. As with so many women of R&B, Toni has her first musical experiences in her church choir.
Together with her four sisters Traci, Trina, Towanda and Tamar, Toni began performing as The Braxtons. Their first single 'Good Life', released in 1990 through Arista Records, was not successful, but it attracted the attention of Antonio 'L.A.' Reid and Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds. This was Toni's chance: both had written 'Love Shoulda Brought You Home' for Anita Baker for the soundtrack of Eddie Murphy's film Boomerang, but because Anita was pregnant at the time and decided not to record it. Toni's recording was later included on the soundtrack along with 'Give U My Heart', a duet by Braxton & Babyface.

In June 1996, Braxton released her second and most successful album, Secrets.
With help of first single 'You're Makin' Me High', which became Braxton's first #1 hit, the album became her most successful.
The album's second single, 'Un-Break My Heart', written by Diane Warren, became the biggest hit of her career, spending eleven weeks at #1 and also topping the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart. The song is the second biggest selling single by a female singer in US Billboard Chart history behind Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. Background vocals were performed by R&B singers Shanice Wilson and Chante Moore. The music video featured Braxton mourning the death of her lover, played by Ralph Lauren model Tyson Beckford (pictured right).

'Satisfaction' is the first and (to date) most successful single release of Grammy Award winning Italian DJ and producer Marco 'Benny' Benassi, included in his 2003 album Hypnotica and used in a TV commercial for an Australian beer as well as Wendy's hamburgers. It was certified Gold in Australia, Belgium, France and the US. The track, although well composed for it's Electro genre, took off to a relatively slow start. It was after the Record Label of London's nightclub Ministry of Sound replaced it's orginal video, which was almost a still picture of the band overlayed with graphics, with a video of models using power tools, that it went on to worldwide success. In a way, it was a social study and proofed that sex indeed does sell.

Music Videos:

Version 1: The first version of the music video feature the three men and the woman in the cover of Hypnotica. It consists of one three-second take of the four people turning to face the camera and smile, played in slow-motion to match the length of the song. Inserted overtop are clips of a man and a woman singing along to the song. This music video was barely played on music channels, although in some countries, it replaced the 'construction' version.

Version 2: The second and most infamous version of the music video features women in skimpy construction outfits. The video plays almost like a virtual advertisement for a variety of power tools. This version was mainly relegated to nighttime hours. Although, in Costa Rica, Belgium and the UK the music video received airplay, running day and night. It stars models Jerri Byrne, Thekla Roth, Natasha Mealey and Lena Frank.

Version 3: The third version of the clip is animated. It shows animations of people dancing, singing and drinking. Very few music stations played this version. On selected music channels in Costa Rica, this was the version that was released, because of the channels refusing to play the 'construction' version.

Original CD Single Cover

Version 4: The fourth and final X-rated version of the music video features the same construction clips as version 2 with extra clips added of a man and woman having sex. This video was broadcast on TMF UK.

Spoof Version: In 2010 a hilarious joke version of the video surfaced, with the boys of the Haileybury Revue re-enacting the construction version.

So you think New Jersey, US is an unlikely launch pad for a music star? How about Bromley, UK, then?

William Michael Albert Broad, a.k.a. Billy Idol, was born 1955 in Stanmore, England, deriving his stage name Idol from a schoolteacher's description of him as 'idle'.
Billy went on to join the Bromley Contingent of Sex Pistols fans. He first joined the punk rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees (before the band had decided on that name) in 1976, but soon quit and joined Chelsea in 1977 as a guitarist. But him and bandmate Tony James soon quit and co-founded Generation X, with Billy switching from guitarist to lead singer. Generation X signed to Chrysalis Records, released three albums and performed in the 1980 film, D.O.A., before disbanding.
The year after Billy moved to New York to start his solo career, which began with the EP titled Don't Stop. This included the Generation X song 'Dancing with Myself', originally recorded for their last album Kiss Me Deadly, and a cover of Tommy James & The Shondells' song 'Mony Mony'. In 1982 Idol instantly became an MTV staple with 'White Wedding'. In an effort to introduce himself to American audiences not yet as familiar with him as those in England, Billy's label re-released 'Dancing with Myself' in the US in conjunction with a music video (directed by Tobe Hooper, produced by Jeffrey Abelson, and conceptualised by Keith Williams) that played in heavy rotation on MTV for six months. That video sparked a new era of feature film directors trying their hand at music videos, which helped make Idol a household name.
My favourite Billy Idol tracks are 'Eyes Without A Face' and 'Flesh For Fantasy'.

Peter Gene Hernandez, a.k.a. Bruno Mars, born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, began making music at a young age. After performing in various musical venues in his hometown throughout his childhood, he decided to pursue a musical career and moved to LA to produce songs for other artists.
After an unsuccessful stint with Motown Records he signed with Atlantic Records in 2009. He became recognized as a solo artist after lending his vocals and co-writing the hooks for the songs 'Nothin' on You' by B.o.B, and 'Billionaire' by Travie McCoy. He also co-copied the hits 'Right Round' by Flo Rida & Ke$ha, co-wrote last years football worldcups anthem 'Wavin' Flag' by K'naan and for Cee Lo Green. In October 2010, he released his debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, anchored by the releases 'Just the Way You Are' and 'Grenade'. He was nominated for seven Grammys at the 53rd Grammy Awards, winning Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for 'Just the Way You Are'.
Bruno's music is noted for displaying a wide variety of styles and influences, and contains elements of many different musical genres. He has worked with an assortment of artists from different genres, acknowledging the influences that his collaborations have had on his own music. As a child, he was highly influenced by Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson and would often impersonate them. Bruno also incorporates reggae and Motown inspired sounds into his work. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times referred to Mars as 'one of the most versatile and accessible singers in pop'.

Krush hailed from Nottingham, UK, and consisted of Mark Gamble, Cassius Campbell and record producers Mark Brydon and Robert Gordon as as well as vocalist Ruth Joy, whose real name is Ann Saunderson and, not least because of the coincidence of the chart success timing, was a long time assumed and rumoured to be the wife of Kevin Saunderson.
Mark went on to have continued success with a variety of other projects within house/dance music: most notable in the mid 1990s with vocalist Róisín Murphy, as the producer of Moloko.
Krush's 'House Arrest' was one the first songs I ever recorded back in the 80s on the Stereo Cassette Recorder I so proudly purchased from the gift money for my Coming-of-Age celebrations.

This one was a strange one... but I loved both: Kevin Saunderson and Shanna Jackson (a.k.a. Paris Grey) were Inner City and Jazzie B. and Caron Wheeler were Soul II Soul. The former hailed from Illinois, US, the latter from London, UK. Although both chartwise scored according to their country of origin, their musical style was vice versa. At the time, end 80s/early 90s, I saw them as rivals, when really they were complimenting each other.
Both are two of my favourite formations. Ever.

Vito Lucente, Italo-Belgian DJ and producer born in Bari, Italy, has many and sometimes very obscure aliases. The ones most successful and recognised are Junior Jack & Room 5.
In the early years Vito produced several Acid House and Eurodance projects, mostly in collaboration with Eric Imhauser. His more famous project was as producer of the Synth Pop band Benny B, with vocalist Amid Gharbaoui, DJ Daddy K and dancer Serge 'Perfect' Nuet. He left the band after the second album. In 1995, he abandoned Eurodance and adopted the name Mr. Jack (which would later morph into Junior Jack), dabbling in house music, which is when he first scored in the Uk Charts with 'My Feeling'. 2003 he teamed up with Robert Smith of The Cure to release 'Da Hype'
As a remixer, he has reworked tracks for artists such as Whitney Houston, Moby, Bob Sinclar and Utada. He has worked extensively in this area with partner Kid Creme.

Susie Ledge, also known as Susie Atherton or simply Susie, is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from South East London. Renown for her evocative lyrics and emotive yet chilled out style, she creates songs that are soothing to the ear and vivid for the imagination. Susie's music has the unusual ability of being instantly recognisable.

As one half of Tin Tin Out, Darren Stokes dominated 90's dancefloors with anthems like 'Strings For Yasmin' and 'Always (Something There To Remind Me)'. He also produced career-launching records for The Corrs and Emma Bunton, whilst finding the time to remix eveybody from Sting to Whitney Houston. M-Box partner Philip Larsen scooped a Grammy in 2004 for his work on Kylie's Fever album and as one half of Manhattan Clique, which produced Moby's first ever No.1 record 'Slipping Away' with Mylene Farmer (see post). Working together as M-Box, the boys turned their attention to songstress Susie Ledge, after a major performance at Glastonbury that year. Together, they released 'When You're Gone', which became an instant hit in Ibiza. Since then, Susie has teamed up in several other projects, managing to emulate her first success, capturing the clubbing crowds.

Watch out for this lot - this promises to be not just another boyband...

Artur Archibaz (Артур Арчибаз), Kyryll Fedorenko (Кирилл Федоренко), Stas Pavlov (Стас Павлов) and Oleg Zhezhel (Олег Жежель) are - Kazaky.
The four Ukrainian boys founded their band last year, having their debut in September with 'In the Middle' and following that up with 'Love' last month. Several key people in Russia's, as well as America's music industry have duly taken note, and, an entourage of very credible DJs have taken up remixing their tracks.
Their image: Provocation. Don't expect lala-songs from boys-next-door Westlife or Boyzone-style; instead, reckon with full-on, in-your-face confident arrogance, oouzing unconventional sexuality: they have abs but wear heels. Their music: American style beats. Their moves: acro-dance with elements of ballet.
Yevhen Tymokhin (Євген Тимохін) and Helena Markova (Елена Маркова) are directing their videos, with the boys doing their own choreography. Their styling is taken care of by Vasylyi Bondarenko (Василий Бондаренко).

In 2003, Simon Marlin and Max Reich, a.k.a. The Shapeshifters, shot to instant fame with a tune that should become somewhat of a dance classic. Although Simon insists that the inspiration came from his wive (hence Lola's Theme) the inpiration is much more likely to have come from Johnnie Taylor's 1982 track 'What About My Love', the intro of which they heavily sampled. In fact, when listening to the original you might be forgiven for thinking you are listening to The Shapeshifters with the turntable at the wrong speed.
The guys played around with Lola's record collection and came up with the name, which was originally intended to be a mere working title. The instrumental version found it's way to UK dancefloors and proofed and instant success at the end of 2003, which is when it was first released on Nocturnal Goove. The vocals were added after hiring Janet Ramus, a.k.a. Cookie, from the London Community Gospel Choir in East Dulwich, and - due to it's immense popularity, the track was re-released on Positiva the summer of the following year, when it it the mainstream.
Cookie's vocals also feature on The Shapeshifters' follow up single 'Back To Basics', which enjoyed similar success in the clubs.
Remarkably, Lola's Theme, as well as Back To Basics hit #1 in the US Radio Airplay Charts, where the duo is known as Shape:UK to avoid conflict with LA based Hip-Hop outfit Shape Shifters.
Simon and Max are also widely known for remixing other artists' tracks.

I don't know much about Elif Turan; and what there is to get to know is in Turkish. All I know about Elif is that I first heard heard her, stepping of a plane on Ercan airport in Northern Cyprus, the air hot like a hairdryer and while escaping to a hatch, cooling down, while Mehmet negotiated the rate of the car hire: there she was on KRAL, the Turkish equivalent to MTV or VIVA. Bang! ...and an affinity was made.

I Drove All Night was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly for Roy Orbison. Roy first recorded the song in 1987, but his rendition was not released until 1992, after the song had become a Top10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic for Cyndi Lauper in 1989. The song has been covered by Celine Dion (2003). The latter version takes me right back to my NY Fire Island nights...

There is much more to Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (born 1953 in New York) than just 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun', although that is probably the song she will be remembered forever more.
Six days before her 48th birthday she performed a song at the AIDS Benefit in Vienna's City Hall that would go on to be remixed by several people, including Victor Calderone and Tracy Young. The latter track is the one that hit the clubs; and hit me in particular in a Club in Miami Beach, just yards from Miss Lauper's Florida residence.
The remix also features in one episode of the climactic fifth season of the US version of Queer as Folk, in which Cindy appeared as herself to perform at the show's 'Babylon' gay club.
The first official release of the song appeared on the Shine E.P., a 2002 mini album released to counteract heavy pirating of the material on the then-shelved full length album. The album itself, however, was not released in the U.S., before the official release of the album -exclusively in Japan - a single was released for the song, in a variety of formats. This limited edition was only released in the United States and could only be ordered online. The official name of the single is "Shine Remixes".

Cindy Lauper - Shine (Tracy Young Remix)
JPN#120

Lyrics:

Shine I'll stand by you
Don't try and push me away
'cause I'm just gonna stay
You can shine I won't deny you
And don't be afraid it'll all be ok

Do you know my name
Well I ain't gonna take
that big time line
won't be beat by a lie
Gonna call out to these embers
waiting to ignite
Gonna pull you up
By your love, by your love
and tell you

Shine I'll stand by you...

I can see the frown you wear
All around like some faded crown
Like a watch over wound
Gonna call down to this diamond
buried underground
Gonna pull you up
by your love, by your love
and tell you

When it's said and done
What you need will come
and time won't let me
Let you let me waste it this time
shine...

Patricia Daniels, a.k.a. Adeva, was born 1960 in Paterson, New Jersey, just like her fellow Soul-stroke-R&B-stroke-House vocalist Sybil (Lynch). Seems like New Jersey is not that bad at all and a bit of a cradle for talent, huh? Jon Bonjovi, for instance, also saw the light of the world in the US Garden State...
But back to Patricia. Adeva developed her voice as a member, and later director and vocal coach, of her church choir. She entered several talent contests, and won so often that she was soon banned from entering several of them. She began singing professionally in the mid-1980s, releasing the single 'In and Out of My Life' on Easy Street Records before moving on to label Cooltempo in 1988. Noted for her powerful vocals, she released a house rendition of the Otis Redding hit 'Respect' in 1989 and released her debut album in the same year. The album was released in the US in 1990 with major record label Capitol/EMI Records, under license from Chrysalis Records in the UK, with which she signed originally.
The album was a critical and commercial success in the UK and contained several hit singles. 'Respect' remains a favorite on radio stations, especially in NYC to this day. The follow-up 'I Thank You' also charted. In 1992, Cooltempo dropped her because her second album Love Or Lust? failed to gain attention.
It was three years later that my attention was gripped: her collaboration with Frankie Knuckles went down a storm on London dancefloors! Too Many Fish and Whadda U Want From Me remain two of my favorite tunes.

Malcolm McLaren was quite a charater, and much more than being the manager of the Sex Pistols and being Vivianne Westwood's friend. In fact there is so much to tell that there is hardly any room in this blog.
One thing to tell for me is that I must shamefully admit that he only started to feature on my own radar in 1989, the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall, with his album Waltz Darling.
In a nutshell: born in 1946 in Stoke Newington (of all places!), and after his father leaving, he was brought up by his grandmother, part of a wealthy Portuguese Diamond dealer family, whom raised him with the motto: 'To be bad is good... to be good is simply boring' (I guess that explains the Sex Pistols bit).
When he was six, McLaren's mother married Martin Levi, a man working in London's rag trade and they lived well but Malcolm and his stepfather never got along. He left home in his teens. Following a series of jobs (including one as a wine taster), he went on to attend several art colleges through the 60s, being expelled from several before leaving education entirely in '71. It was during this time that he began to design clothing, a talent he would later use when he became a boutique owner.
He had been attracted to the Situationist movement, particularly King Mob, which promoted absurdist and provocative actions as a way of enacting social change. In 1968 Malcolm tried unsuccessfully to travel to Paris to take part in the demonstrations there; instead he took part in a student occupation of Croydon Art School.
In 1971 he and his girlfriend, the designer Vivienne Westwood, opened a London clothing shop called Let It Rock, on Kings Road. The shop sold Teddy Boy clothes and McLaren and Westwood also designed clothing for theatrical and cinematic productions. Let It Rock proved a success but Malcolm grew disillusioned with the style of shop. He travelled to New York in 1972 renaming the outlet at 430 Kings Road 'Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die'. In April 1975, McLaren returned to Britain, by which time he had renamed the shop SEX, selling punk and S&M inspired clothing.
By 1976, Malcolm had started to manage The Strand, the band who would later become the Sex Pistols. He soon introduced them to bassist Glen Matlock (who worked in SEX). His assistant, Bernie Rhodes (soon to be manager of The Clash), spotted John Lydon who was then sporting green hair, and torn clothes with the words 'I hate' scribbled on his Pink Floyd shirt. His appearance and attitude impressed him, now nicknamed Johnny Rotten, was brought in to audition as a new frontman. Johnny joined, and the band was renamed The Sex Pistols.
In May 1977, the band released 'God Save the Queen' during the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. McLaren organised a boat trip down the Thames where the Sex Pistols would perform their music outside Houses of Parliament. The boat was raided by the police and McLaren was arrested, thus achieving his goal to attain publicity. More water passed down father Thames, but Malcolm kept the Sex Pistols' contract rights until Johnny took him to court in the 80s to win the rights and unpaid revenues. Johnny won and gained complete control from Malcolm in 1987. Both refused to speak to each other after the band split.
He was approached by Adam Ant to manage Adam and the Ants, following their debut album release in late 1979. Shortly after three members of the band left to form Bow Wow Wow, also under Malcolm's management. He continued to manage Ant as he found new band members for Adam and the Ants and worked on a new sound.
Bow Wow Wow was a band created solely for promotional purposes. Originally created to promote clothing designed by Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm continued to exploit the band members, pressuring the underage lead singer to pose nude for the underage sex magazine he had created entitled Chicken, a reference to the magazine's underage content.

Did I say nutshell? Well back to Malcolm and his own musical track record:

In 1983, Malcolm released Duck Rock, an album which in collaboration with The World's Famous Supreme Team (a duo of Hip-Hop radio disc jockeys from New York City) mixed up influences from Africa and the Americas, including Hip-Hop. The album proved to be highly influential in bringing Hip-Hop to a wider audience in the UK. Two of the singles from the album 'Buffalo Gals' and 'Double Dutch' became top-10 hits in the UK.
He then turned to electronic music and opera in the 1984 single 'Madame Butterfly'. The track is arranged with drum machines, atmospheric synthesizers and spoken verses. The producer of the single, Stephen Hague, became a much sought after producer in the music scene, later getting involved in Madonna's rise to fame.
Malcolm's 1989 album Waltz Darling, was a funk/disco/vogueing inspired album. Waltz Darling incorporated elements of his former albums, spoken verses, string arrangements and eclectic mix of genres but featured such prominent musicians as Bootsy Collins and Jeff Beck with a glitzy, Louisiana-style production aimed at the US market. The single 'Deep in Vogue' brought 'voguing' to the attention of the world long before Madonna did.
Malcolm met Korean American Young Kim at a party in Paris, who became his girlfriend for the last 12 years of his life. She moved in with him in 2002 and they lived together in Paris and New York. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2009 and died of the disease on 8 April 2010 in a hospital in Switzerland. Reportedly, Malcom's death bed last words were 'Free Leonard Peltier'. He was buried in at the same place as Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery, North London.

In 1971, Pete Townshend of The Who wrote a song, which would have a lot of impact back then - and later on. Written for his Lifehouse project and released that year by Roger Daltrey & Co., the song starts off with a solo voice singing over an arpeggiated acoustic guitar, later adds in bass guitar and ethereal harmonies, eventually breaks out into full-scale rock anthem when a second theme is introduced near the end, and wraps up by a brief reprise of the quieter first theme. Songs written in alternating sections were something of a trademark of Townshend's writing of the period.

The song was covered by Limp Bizkit in 2004 and was released as a single from their album Results May Vary, to coincide with the release of the film Gothika. Lyrics of the original song were subjected to major changes in Limp Bizkit's cover: a new third verse was added.
It is tis version which was sampled by Lil' Wayne in 'The Bad, The Sad, and The Hated'.

Andy Williams, Carl Thomas (from Wrexham, North Wales), Russ Morgan, and Paul Roberts (from nearby Chester) met at the legendary Haçienda in Manchester in 1988, which seems to have triggered their decision to work together, although the lads had met before. While Paul & Carl, on occasion, has supported 808 State, Andy and Carl were already pretty established, but had no gear at the time - it was basically an SH-101 and a little Tandy mixer. They took about five tracks to Eastern Bloc in Manchester, the happening dance label at the time, just to see what they thought. They didn't have a name and the tracks were just numbers, but Eastern Bloc were really keen, and we put it out on a white label.
After recording the Wildlife EP, K-Klass's first hit was 'Rhythm is a Mystery', sung by Bobbi Depasois, and released in 1991. 'Let Me Show You' followed in 1993. Two albums, Universal, featuring Depasois' vocals, and K2 were released, and in 1995, K-Klass won the I.D.A. Best International Remixer award, the first UK artist to do so. Talking of remixing, K-Klass are very known for delivering exquisite remixes of other artist's tracks. The Pet Shop Boys' album Bilingual and Holly Valance's Naughty Girl are just some examples.

In 2008, Canadian Producer Joel Zimmermann, a.k.a. Deadmau5 and US American DJ Ryan Raddon, a.k.a. Kaskade, hired singer-songwriter Haley Gibby to record one of my favourite tunes that some would classify as Progressive House.

Joel Zimmermann, a.k.a. Deadmau5

There are two video versions, a 10-minute short film and an edited 4-minute version, produced by Anthony & Christopher Donnelly of Mancunian Gio-Goi fame. The video stars Stephen Graham, Warren Brown, Aston Kelly, Greg Walsh & also ex-Coronation Street actress Emma Edmondson. It was filmed in Manchester, with Stephen talking to Warren and Astn about life and rave culture. The two young men then proceed to find a suitable venue for, what is later revealed to be, an illegal rave with Deadmau5 performing as the DJ.
Stephen was almost arrested after police mistook the video for a genuine illegal rave.

Simon Webbe, Lee Ryan, Duncan James and Antony Costa are: Blue. The boys found in 2001 and rose to fame pretty much pronto with All Rise. Late in 2004, Elton John, with whom they were working together from 2004, suggested to split and focus on their respective solo careers.
Boys grown into men, they announced earlier this year they would reunite and are will be representing the UK in this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Germany.

Robbie Nevil, born 1960 in LA had his breakthough in 1986 with his self-titled debut album, although his subsequent albums were not as successful.
It was one of the first albums I bought in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It still graces my music shelf as one of the best albums I ever bought.
Between 1986 and 1991, Robbie recorded three solo albums, the most successful was produced by Alex Sadkin and recorded in England. Prior to this, he was involved in writing material for other artists and sang a duet with Courtney Love at the funeral service for American pop artist Andy Warhol.
In recent years, Robbie has been more involved in producing and writing for other artists than in solo performance. He co-wrote three songs on the High School Musical Soundtrack: 'The Start of Something New', 'We’re All In This Together' and 'I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You'.

Andreas Bialek, a.k.a. Andry Nalin, and Ralf Beck, a.k.a. Harry Kane, a remix duo from Germany, began working together in 1993 as Nalin Inc. and formed their own label Superfly Records two years later. A few underground releases preceeded their breakthrough in late 1996 as Nalin & Kane: 'Beachball' proved THE Ibiza tune of the season that summer and topped the club charts in many countries at the time of its official release. Like the majority of dance releases, the track has been remixed several times but none have come close to repeating the success of the original version. The couple followed it up with 'Planet Violet' the year after and had success with remixes of Paul Schmitz & Harald Blüchel, a.k.a. Energy 52's 'Café Del Mar' (original: 1993) and Frank Tomiczek, a.k.a. Da Hool's 'Meet Her At The Love Parade' in 1999, when they released their debut album Krystal Palace.

For some reason the pictures of the horrific events in Japan today made me think first of this...

K.I.S.S. - a South Korean pop trio - not to be confused with Kiss, the NYC hard rock formation of the 1970s - shot to instant worldwide fame for the video to a song which orginally only captured the attention of it's audience regionally. However, someone posted the heart-wrenching 8 minute love tragedy on the internet and it began to take it's run around the world. The video tells the story of... - oh, watch it yourself...

They made all the noise in 1987: Simon Climie and Rob Fisher, both previously writing absolute scorchers for fellow artists, hit the charts that year with their own album 'Everything'. The girls would collapse en masse, but this was largely contained that year. While Simon Climie wrote 'I Know You Were Waiting' for Aretha Fraklin & George Michael in 1986, as well as working with singer as divers as Louise and Eric Clapton, Rob Fisher was mostly responsible for Rick Astley's comet-like success. Rob died of bowel cancer in 1999.

Banderas was a female duo of the early 1990s that was signed to London Records and an offshoot of Jimmy Sommerville’s band The Communards. Caroline Buckley teamed up with Sally Herbert, one of his female backing singers. Banderas is mostly remembered for 'This Is Your Life', which was written with songwriter Roger Swallow. You can count them as a one-hit-wonder if you discount their follow up singles, which were largely ignored.
This is your Life reminds me heavily of my years at the Prinz Luitpold Bad, a Bavarian Hotel I worked in, before emigrating to the UK.

There is few tracks of the Hip-Hop genre I can really connect to. But ever so often there is one that stands out above the rest: there was, of course, 'Rapper's Delight' by The Sugar Hill Gang, a 15 minute epic that paved the way for Rap worldwide in 1979, there was 'Beat Street' by Grandmaster Melle Mel, the main song of the soundtrack of same named movie from 1984, there was Afrika Bambaataa's 'Pupunanny', a dance influenced tune that send me into near oblivion in 1994 and then there is Missy Elliott's '4 My People', dated exactly 10 years ago, 2001. Oddly, the track never charted on the other side of the Atlantic, but did very well in Europe. Head straight for the Basement Jaxx Remix, it's the bee's knees.

Serge Devant was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, but grew up in the US. His music is stylistically diverse and transcends the boundaries of the genre, adding up to a hard-hitting, riveting but classically beautiful sound.
Not very long after his humble beginnings studying classical music in the former Soviet Union, Serge’s early electronic career is already marked with the achievements of a seasoned veteran.
Serge Devant’s first single 'Transparent' in 2005 is recorded with trance diva Jan Johnston. But his career progression took dizzy heights in 2008, when Coca-Cola has brought Serge on board with an exclusive track 'Peace on Earth' for the Olympics in Beijing and clothing maker Armani Exchange had invited him to represent the brand. Serge Devant hit the coveted DJ Mag Top 100 List and became the youngest resident DJ at New York’s legendary Crobar.
DJ Tiësto names him one of his top 5 favorite DJ’s. Tiësto and many of the worlds DJ elite personally request Serge to share the stage while Serge himself holds residencies in major U.S. cities and headlines globally. With Serge on stage, crowds witness a skillful exhibition from one of the most promising young talents in the industry today.
In 2009 he released his first album, entitled Wanderer, on which has worked with several vocalists, such as ex-iiO's Nadia Ali and Hadley Poole.
Here my favourite two tracks, but I can recommend the entire album!